Dr Christian Hilber S418A

This course is compulsory on the MSc in Real Estate Economics and Finance. This course is available on the MPA in European Public and Economic Policy, MPA in International Development, MPA in Public Policy and Management, MPA in Public and Economic Policy and MPA in Public and Social Policy. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

The course assumes that students already have knowledge of economics equivalent to a good first degree in the subject. It is available as an option to students who can show that they are suitably qualified.

This course aims to provide students with a theoretical and empirical understanding of urban economic processes and price determination in land and real property markets within an institutional context.; Examples of topics covered include: the function of cities and the urban system; the determinants of urban structure; patterns of urban land use; the determinants of urban and regional growth - theory and evidence; land and real property markets; the impact of land market regulation including the economic impact of land use planning; local public finance and house price capitalisation; real estate cycles; homeownership; the economics of schooling, crime and urban transport; urban labour markets. The institutional frame of reference within which the course is taught relates mainly to Western Europe and the United States.

20 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the MT. 20 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the LT.

Detailed reading list will be given out at the beginning of the course. Much of the reading will be journal articles. However, some important items are: J. F. McDonald & D. P. McMillen, Urban Economics and Real Estate, 2007. D. DiPasquale & W. Wheaton, Urban Economics and Real Estate Markets, 1996; A. O'Sullivan, Urban Economics (7th edn), 2009; B. O’Flaherty, City Economics, 2005; J. F. McDonald, Fundamentals of Urban Economics, 1997; P. C. Cheshire & E. S. Mills, Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics Vol III: Applied Urban Economics, North Holland, 1999; M. Fujita, Urban Economic Theory, 1988; Henderson, J. V. and J. F. Thisse, Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics Vol IV, North Holland, 2004; E. L. Glaeser, Triumph of the City, 2011.

Exam (100%, duration: 3 hours) in the main exam period.